


A Christmas Surprise

by loveyouhomex



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Family time, Fluff, I mean it's christmas so it's probably just really cheesy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:34:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28282506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveyouhomex/pseuds/loveyouhomex
Summary: Even though he can’t see his boyfriend, Lando knows that Carlos is smiling, when he answers him. “Well, for one, there aren’t even any planes from Spain to England right now.” – “Just get a private jet.”, Lando whines. He can hear Carlos chuckle and knows, that he’s being childish.[a small Christmas Story]
Relationships: Lando Norris/Carlos Sainz Jr
Comments: 8
Kudos: 90





	A Christmas Surprise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lux1224](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lux1224/gifts).



> So this is actually a birthday present for the wonderful @Lux1224. She helped me a lot to feel welcome in te f1 tumblr fandom, always let's me beta read her amazing stories and endures my 500 comments on it haha. 
> 
> And of course, it's also a Christmas present for everyone who loves Carlando, so I hope you'll enjoy it! 
> 
> Merry Christmas 🧡

The room is still painted in the dark colours of an early winter morning, when Lando feels himself waking up. His head fully pressed into the pillows, he groggily thinks it’s a wonder he hasn’t suffocated during the night. Rolling on his back, the cold air of the room hits the side of his face that’s been buried in the cushions and a shudder runs down his spine. 

Curling up into a ball, Lando tries to not let the warmth from the night leave his body more than necessary. This way he’s still able to catch a sight of the red digits of the clock on his nightstand, but his sleepy brain needs a few seconds until he fully processes that it is 5 o’clock in the morning. With a loud groan, Lando pulls the covers over his head and squeezes his eyes shut. Breathing in through his nose he quickly realizes that the thickness of the duvet makes it harder to actually get some air into his lungs, so he slides the duvet back down, just under his nose. 

Lando’s eyelids flutter open again, still heavy from the few hours of sleep he has been able to catch. Gazing around his childhood room in his parents’ house, he can only make out vague outlines in the shadows of the night. But he doesn’t need any light to know that his closet is in the right corner of the room, next to his desk, where only a few empty sheets of paper and some pencils lay scattered about. 

Yesterday, he has tried to sit down for some time and actually draw on paper again instead of just using his laptop, but he has had no idea what he wanted to do so he went to bed early and with a frustrated feeling in the pit of his stomach. No, if he is being honest with himself – usually trying to avoid this – the feeling in his gut has started to grow way before he hasn’t been able to catch a hold of his creativity last night. It’s been there for a good part of this year and Lando’s just tried to shove it back down every time it dared to take control over him. 

Letting out a defeated sigh, Lando leans over to his bedtime stand and tries to grab his phone that should be somewhere on the wooden surface. After running his hand searchingly over the various things standing on the small table, nearly knocking over his glass of water by accident, he finally gets a hold of his phone. Unlocking it, Lando sees that he has a couple of unread messages, most of them still from last night, when he hasn’t taken another look at them before going to bed. Quickly skimming through them, he stops short when he sees that there’s an unread message from Carlos. 

_“Merry Christmas, cariño. I hope you enjoy spending time with your family, but I can’t wait to have you in my arms again, soon. Sleep tight.”_

The corners of his mouth slowly form a smile on his face and Lando lets his head sink into the pillows once again, typing a short reply to his boyfriend. He’s nearly forgotten that it is the 25th of December, Christmas Day, the reason why he is in Glastonbury with his family in the first place. Lando is just about to put his phone away again to get a few more hours of sleep, when he sees that Carlos is online and typing a reply. Checking the time again – it’s only an hour later in Spain, than it currently is in the UK – his brows furrow and he waits for the message.

_“Good morning, sunshine. Why are you up so early?”_

Lando lets out a quiet laugh and replies, not answering the question but asking the Spaniard the exact same thing. He hits send and only a few seconds after that, Carlos calls him.

“Mornin’”, Lando grumbles into his phone, curling up once again under the duvet. He instinctively closes his eyes when he hears Carlos’ deep voice answering him. If he focuses hard enough on his boyfriend’s voice, he might be able to convince himself that Carlos is just lying next to him under the covers – not in a bed more than a thousand miles and an ocean away. 

“A good morning to you, sir.”, Carlos answers in a cheerful voice, not even hiding the fact, that he is more of a morning person than Lando himself will ever be. 

“Why are you up so early? It’s six in the morning in Spain. And we’re on our well-deserved break from schedules and early mornings.”, Lando whines, rubbing the last bit of sleep out of his eyes with his thumb.  
“I don’t know, I just woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. So, I got up and took Piñon out for a walk.” – “You’re so strange.”

Carlos lets out a small laugh, but his voice gets a softer touch with his next words. “And still, you love me.” 

Lando just huffs approvingly and they both turn silent after that for a few moments. Caught in the memories of the Abu Dhabi grand Prix just one and a half weeks ago, he can’t believe how much he misses this man already. They’ve spent more time together on the road this season than during the last one and he wishes he could’ve enjoyed it to the fullest. But because of the stupid Covid-19 rules and the bubbles they’ve been assigned to, it has been hard to actually spend some quality time together – alone.  
They’ve tried to make as much of it as possible, sneaking around the motor homes during practice, walking through the hotel corridors barefoot so no one would be alarmed by steps in the middle of the night, but it hasn’t been enough for Lando in the end. When Carlos has had to say goodbye, first after the race with the whole team present and then in the airport, where the two of them found a secluded little area, Lando has held onto Carlos for as long as possible. 

He’s known that the minute he would let him go and walk away to his flight, everything would be different. Next season, Carlos would drive for Ferrari. They wouldn’t share a team anymore, a motorhome, the same hotel. They would have to sneak around even more than the last few months.  
“I miss you.”, Lando mumbles into his phone, turning the call on speakers so he can put the device down next to him and cuddle further into the blanket. 

“I miss you, too, cariño. I wish I could be there with you, celebrate Christmas with you and your family.”, Carlos answers, shuffling around on the other side of the line. It sounds as if he’s getting under a blanket as well and Lando sighs quietly. He would give a lot for Carlos to be getting under his blanket right now, slipping his arms around Lando’s small frame, pulling him against his body. 

“Why don’t you, though? My family would love to have you here.” It’s true. His family adores Carlos so much, Lando sometimes fears they would actually try to adopt him if they could. Even though he can’t see his boyfriend, Lando knows that Carlos is smiling, when he answers him. “Well, for one, there aren’t even any planes from Spain to England right now.”

“Just get a private jet.”, Lando whines. He can hear Carlos chuckle and knows, that he’s being childish. Before he can bring forward another argument, Lando yawns loudly, getting another chuckle out of Carlos.  
“Love, I think you should go back to sleep. Otherwise you’ll just be dead tired during the whole day and can’t even enjoy Christmas.” 

“But I don’t want to stop talking to you.”, Lando replies, his voice slurring a bit from the tiredness that befalls his body once more.  
“I’ll call you later, yeah? Just sleep for a bit longer. I love you.” Lando mumbles an ‘I love you’ back, already half asleep again.

✨✨✨

The next time he opens his eyes, an orange glow illuminates his room. He hears someone trampling down the stairs, not even trying to be quiet to let other people sleep. Probably Flo, Lando thinks. He stretches in bed, before sitting up and hugs his knees to his chest. When his eyes follow the source of light to his window, he can’t believe his eyes. The world has been covered in a thick layer of snow overnight; little snow crystals on his window reflect the sun in a breath-taking way.

He quickly jumps out of bed, accidentally kicking his phone on the floor in the process before picking it up to take a picture for Carlos. He hits send, captioning it with one elongated word: ‘SNOOOOOOOOW’. When it comes to snow, Lando is a 7-year old child. Well, not only when it comes to snow, but he likes to pretend that only these frozen raindrops can turn his behaviour into a childlike one. With a wide grin on his face, Lando collects some comfy clothes that are lying on the floor. He sniffs on them to see if they’re still okay enough to wear, before going into his bathroom to get ready for the day.

He’s full of energy, when he leaves his room and jumps down the stairs, taking two steps at a time. “What’s wrong with you?”, Oliver grumbles as Lando passes him in the kitchen. But the younger one just shrugs, the grin still plastered on his face. He quickly kisses his mom on her cheek and turns away as fast as he can, so she’s not able to ruffle through the mess on his head, which definitely needs to see a real hairdresser after Lando tried to cut it himself whilst streaming on twitch. That was certainly not his finest hour. 

As he fills a bowl with cereal and some milk, Flo appears out of the living room and sits down at the table as well. She looks Lando up and down, her brows furrowed.  
“It’s eight in the morning, why are you awake and why are you so giddy.” Lando just rolls his eyes, not even responding to his sister. Why does everyone question his good mood? 

“Did you have phone sex with Carlos last night?” 

Lando nearly spits out the big gulp of tea he’s just taken and feels his cheeks burning up. He could probably put a ripe tomato to shame. He fixes Flo with big eyes like everyone else at the table, whilst his sister just takes a bite of her toast, undisturbed, as if nothing had happened.  
“Flo! This is not something I want discussed at breakfast.”, his mum says, eyebrows pulled up so high they nearly vanish in her hair. 

“It’s nothing I want to be discussed by you at all!”, Lando mumbles, lowering his gaze onto his plate, still too embarrassed to even try to look anywhere else. It’s not as if his parents have anything against him being gay or being in a relationship with his (ex-)teammate. But that doesn’t mean that he wants them – or his siblings for that matter – to talk about his sex life. Out of the corner of his eyes he can see Flo shrugging and that seems to be the sign for all his other family members to collectively forget about what had just happened and resume their breakfast. And as Cisca finally leaves her room to join them in the kitchen – when Lando was a child he has always thought his little sister was a vampire, cause she has loved to keep the curtains closed during the whole day whilst trying to avoid the sunlight and the outside as much as possible – they are already talking about something else.

After breakfast Lando stays back to help his mum clear the kitchen table. It’s something his sisters always moan about, but he hasn’t been home for most of the year, which is why he doesn’t really mind it. When he starts putting the plates into the dishwasher, he can see his mum leaning against the kitchen counter, her arms folded and her eyes following his every move. 

“Yes, mum?”, Lando sighs, not even turning around to face her, because he already knows what she is going to say. “Have you lost weight again?” And there it is. 1:0 for him. Lando rolls his eyes in a sort of fond manner; he knows she’s just worried about him. “Mum, I’m okay, I promise.”, he assures her, reaching for the last mug to put it into the dishwasher. He takes his time closing the machine before turning around. Lando props his arms on the counter behind him, leaning against the drawers, a small smile playing on his lips. 

“You always say that.”

Lando can’t help the laugh that escapes his lips. “Because I’m an adult and I can take care of myself.”  
“You’re twitch followers would probably disagree. Didn’t you just burn your hand whilst making dinner this weekend? Oh, and then you stepped into broken glass?”, his mom shoots back and yeah, he has to admit that he played right into that. Lando leans his head back, stretching his neck and taking a deep breath, before insisting once again, that he is fine and can take care of himself. 

“But now that Carlos doesn’t live with you anymore things will probably get a bit tougher, right?” Lando should’ve known that this was the topic his mum has actually wanted to talk about. She’s just been tiptoeing around it, too scared to talk about it on Christmas break. And Lando wishes she would’ve just let it go, maybe talk about it on another occasion a few days, preferably weeks or months from now. The Brit feels himself deflating a bit, all of the giddy energy from this morning gone with one single breath. He bites down on his lower lip, his fingers starting up a rhythmic beat on the stone surface of the kitchen counter. 

“I guess so?”, is all he answers, not wanting to go in too deep. But his mother is nothing short of relentless. She quickly crosses the space between the two of them and stops right in front of him. She takes in a deep breath and Lando waits for her to say something else, but instead she takes another step closer and simply hugs him. It takes him a second to respond, but then Lando’s arms wrap around her frame and he breathes in, inhaling the familiar scent of the perfume she’s been using since he was a child. 

“I just want you to know that I’m always here for you. That I’ll always listen and cook your favourite dinner to make you feel better.” Lando can’t stop the laugh from coming out and he buries his face in the crook of her neck. “Thanks, mum.”, he mumbles. When they separate again, they both wear matching smiles. “I know that you miss him, especially now. But I’m sure you will see him much sooner than you think.”  
Before Lando can question the knowing look his mother gives him, the doorbell rings, interrupting their chat. He senses the opportunity to detach himself from the conversation that he doesn’t want to continue right now and throws a quick “I’ll get it,” into the room, before walking towards the door. Before he reaches it, he sees Flo and Cisca coming down the stairs, stopping when they see him leaving the kitchen. “What are you doing?”, he asks, but doesn’t get an answer. He can’t really question it further, as the doorbell rings a second time and Lando finally turns the knob. 

For the first few seconds his brain doesn’t process what’s happening or who is standing in front of him. All he can see is dark brown, beautiful hair, brown eyes, and a smile that could outshine the sun.  
“You’re not gonna say anything?”, Carlos says after what feels like two seconds but has probably been closer to a minute of Lando staring at the man in front of him.  
“I think you broke Lando.”, Cisca snickers behind her brother, earning a middle finger from Lando when he can finally show some sort of reaction again.  
“What, how, why…?” He feels lost and overwhelmed and as if he has gone back to bed half an hour ago and is in a very real dream right now. Lando can do nothing else then stare helplessly at Carlos whose eyes shine with so much love for the younger one, that Lando feels the sudden urge to look away. 

“I’m a bit disappointed, I have to say. I thought you’d be happier.”, the Spaniard jokes, still smiling so broad that his cheeks must start to hurt.  
“Can I at least get a hug?” Finally, Lando breaks put of his trance and full on jumps into Carlos’ arms, crossing his legs behind the older one’s back and buries his nose in the messy hair. Carlos has to let go of his bags to be able to stabilize Lando, his right arm starting to draw circles on the smaller one’s back.  
“Am I a good Christmas surprise?”, Carlos mumbles into Lando’s ear, sending a shiver down the Brit’s spine.  
“The best.” And then, finally, after more than a week, their lips meet. It’s just a short but sweet kiss, and Lando feels a warm and soothing feeling spread through his entire body despite the cold air outside. It feels like home. 

When his mom and dad have finally been able to coax the two of them inside and they have put all of Carlos’ stuff into Lando’s room, they sit down on the couch in the living room. Apparently, everyone has known about Carlos coming stay over Christmas – well, everyone except him. He would try to make an effort at being annoyed at his family if it wasn’t for Carlos who has pulled him between his legs on the couch, Lando’s back pressed against Carlos’ chest, their hands intertwined.  
His mom is making some more tea in the kitchen, whilst his dad and his siblings are somewhere else in the house, which means that the two of them finally have some time alone. Lando leans his head to one side, so he can actually see his boyfriend’s face, pressing a kiss against Carlos’ chin. 

“You do know that I still don’t get how you’re able to be here? There are literally no flights to and from England right now.”, Lando says after a minute, watching his boyfriend with a small smile on his face. Carlos lets out a low chuckle, kissing Lando’s forehead.  
“I’ve been in England since Monday. I’ve flown in from Maranello, ‘cause I was scared that something like this might happen.” Lando quickly sits up, turning around in his boyfriends embrace and stares at him incredulously.  
“You’ve been here since Monday? But I thought you already turned in the keys for your old appartement last week?” Carlos softly caresses Lando’s thighs, shaking his head as a reply. 

“No, I left the keys in the letterbox when I left this morning, so my tenant can get them out today. I just wanted to make sure that I could surprise you on Christmas. And I guess, that worked?” Carlos’ voice gets a bit higher at the end of the sentence, as if he is actually unsure about Lando’s thoughts.  
“Of course it worked, you muppet. Oh, and that’s why you were up so early today? Because you had to drive from Woking to Glastonbury?” Carlos looks relieved at Lando’s answer and tightens his hold around the younger one.  
“Yeah, exactly. When we hung up, I thought that I’ve given away the surprise, but it doesn’t seem like it.” Lando lets out a quiet laugh and leans forward, his hands pressed against Carlos’s chest. 

“No, I definitely didn’t suspect anything. But you’ve given me the best present ever.” The Spaniard beams when he hears the words and closes the small distance between them, capturing the younger’s lips in a sweet kiss. Lando’s hands find their way into Carlos’ hair and he strokes through it, eliciting small but beautiful noises out of his boyfriend. Before Carlos can deepen the kiss, they’re interrupted by a pillow that hits Lando right on the back of his head. He bumps his forehead against Carlos’ which causes both of them to groan. Lando turns around to look for the culprit and sees Cisca standing next to the couch, sporting a huge grin. 

“Stop it, you two lovebirds. No one actually wants to see that. Save it for the bedroom.” Lando groans embarrassed, the memories about earlier this morning still ingrained in his mind. His boyfriend just laughs quietly, pressing a soft kiss against Lando’s lips, before turning the younger one around so they’re in their previous position again.  
“Don’t worry, cariño. We’ve got loads of time tonight. And the night after that, and after that….”, Carlos whispers in Lando’s ear and the Brit just turns an even darker shade of red, much to the delight of his sister and his boyfriend. Such a traitor. But Lando can’t stay mad at Carlos for long, especially not when the Spaniard starts to run his fingers through Lando’s hair, massaging his scalp, while he’s starting a conversation with Cisca about the flight-ban in the UK. Lando closes his eyes, cuddling further into Carlos and lets out a contented sigh.  
This will definitely be the best Christmas break he’s ever had.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I definitely appreciate comments and kudos 🧡
> 
> You can also find me on tumblr (@loveyouhomex)


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